This invention relates to inventory control systems for manufactured goods, and more specifically, to a system for recording, updating and reporting the manufacture and inventory locations and characteristics of individual garments.
The manufacturing and warehousing of garments has long been conducted according to fairly standard procedures in the United States. An assembly line is normally utilized including a number of work stations at which one of a number of operations, such as cutting, stitching, or attachment of buttons may take place. A unit of work referred to as a "bundle" is passed along the assembly line among the stations. Each bundle enters the assembly line containing cloth cut to serve as the basis for a number of like items, such as shirts. At the end of the assembly line, the items within the bundle are substantially finished.
Also at the beginning of the assembly line, a series of detachable incentive coupons are attached to the bundle. As work is completed on a bundle at a work station, the worker detaches a coupon which is later given to a supervisor for purposes of pay and bonus calculation by hand. The coupon identifies the bundle from which it was removed, and there is maintained an independent record of the number, content, or identity of bundles processed in any given work shift. Due to data volume, it is currently not possible to correlate mistakes made in a series of garments to a common bundle and a worker who performed a particular type of work. It is also extremely difficult currently to control pilferage at the assembly line, as well as to prevent a worker from stockpiling and withholding coupons in a given shift in order to hand them in during a subsequent shift, thus producing the illusion of steady work output.
In the uniform industry, garments are often placed in inventory for a significant period of time following manufacture, because a purchaser's long-term commitment to a uniform design does not incorporate the planned obsolescence of everyday clothing fashion. A group of like items of differing sizes may be placed in inventory until an order arrives for such items of that particular design. Typically, the order involves some further customization of the items including, for instance, insignia indicating the identity of the organization, the job title, or rank, or name of the wearer, or trademark or promotional slogan. Because of the normal difficulties of communication between the manufacturer and the purchaser as well as the employee for whom the garment is destined, such items are occasionally applied to a garment of the wrong size, color, or style, or may be applied in the wrong position or with the wrong name or indicia. In the past, the garment returned for erroneous customization has been de-customized, but removal of customizing items can not be accomplished without some damage to the garment due to stitching. Thus, the reuse of a de-customized garment depends on receipt of an order for the same style of garment with customized items of equal or greater size which may be placed to cover the stitching marks. The recordkeeping costs of maintaining de-customized garments in stock has, in the past, prohibited systematic reuse on a commercial scale.
Warehousing has, in the past, been conducted by placing a plurality of like garment items into a box, which is then marked with its contents and stored in a warehouse bin together with other boxes. Boxes having like contents are typically stored together, and each bin designated as containing a certain style, in order to facilitate relocation of stored items. This does not make the most efficient use of warehouse bins, because the initial location for each box is selected on the basis of the need for relocation rather than on the basis of efficient use of bin space, transport vehicles, and personnel. Also, the contents of each box has not been monitored in the past, thus permitting pilferage with relative ease.